A new study by a group of Smith researchers documents
for the first time how certain regions of women’s brains react to positive
and negative stereotypes about women’s abilities and how, when a woman is told
she will not succeed, her brain can take on an emotional burden that inhibits her
ability to achieve.

Associate Professor of Psychology Maryjane Wraga, fellow
researchers Molly Helt ’05 and Emily Jacobs ’04, and current student
Kerry Sullivan ’07 used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to document
the brain activity in 54 women between the ages of 18 and 34, after they read a stereotypical
message about women and then performed a spatial reasoning task. The task required
them to view pictures of objects and describe what the objects would look like from
different, imagined perspectives.

The group exposed to a negative stereotype made 6 percent
more errors than the group exposed to a neutral message, and 14 percent more errors
than the group exposed to a positive stereotype.

“The results demonstrate the remarkable power
of culture in determining performance,” said Wraga, the lead author on the
study, published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.

Researchers used a spatial reasoning task and, in particular,
one that required mental rotation, because spatial reasoning is thought to play a
major role in men’s superior performance on measures such as the Scholastic
Aptitude Test (SAT).

The Wall Street Journal recently noted the research
and quoted Wraga about the study’s findings: “Even if you say the stereotype
is rubbish, it has an effect on an unconscious level.”

The research was supported by a grant from the National
Science Foundation and performed at Dartmouth College’s Brain Imaging Center.
For more information about the study, visit www.smith.edu/newsoffice/releases/06-038.html.